Fresh Start
by SilverShadow09
Summary: A new and improved Naruto is back after 5 years away from home not 3 . Have things changed with everyone as well as himself? Can 5 years really change people? Sorry for the lame summary! Rating may change! NartuoXIno
1. He's Back

"How much do you think things have changed since we were last here ero-sennin?" a blonde haired man asked as he and said person were walking on the road leading to Konoha.

"I don't know a lot of thing could have happened in the five years we were gone." Jiraiya said as he thought about the question. _'If I go by how much you changed then… things might have changed a lot'_

looking at the man next to him Jiraiya still could not believe that this tall, lean, and strong man was once a short, chubby, and 'dead last' all those years ago. _"You really have grown… Naruto, from a boy that was looked down upon to a man that, just by the way you held yourself, demands the respect owed to him'_

Five years have changed Naruto not only physically from all the training but mentally as well. He stood tall at a height of 6'4", no longer a runt of 5'3" from before. No more did he have his baby fat his body was lean and toned to perfection from all the years of training non-stop. Naruto grew his hair out a little, still wild like he himself is, his deep blue eyes held a the look of a man that has been though hell and came out victorious. There was strength and wisdom in his eyes as well as in his aura that he presented to those around him.

"I'm glad to be home, I wonder how everyone is?" Naruto said with a smile as he spotted the gates of Konoha less then a mile away.

Shaking his head Jiraiya answered "I'm glad too kid, but remember just like you everyone might not be the same as you remember them."

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"I still can't believe it" said a blonde haired woman "you and Lee, how is that possible?"

The blondes companion gave a shy smile "I don't know myself but it's true I finally gave in and said yes when he asked me out"

"So its for real, you're really over Sasuke then, Sakura?" the blonde ask while sipping her drink.

Sighing Sakura stirred her drink "ya Ino, I've given up on him… no point in wanting something that was never really there to begin wit."

Over the years Sakura and Ino started to rebuild their friendship, now that they no longer fought over Sasuke, and now where one of them was the other would be as well.

Ino was about to ask Sakura more about Lee when someone else caught her eye "I must be dreaming…"

Sakura looked confused at her friend's action and turned to look at what Ino meant and when she did her jaw dropped open.

Walking down the street was a man that looked like a god for lack of a better word. Sun kissed blonde hair, beautiful blue eyes. Wearing tight muscle shit that left nothing to the imagination with loose black jeans, a large grey pack slung over his shoulder.

"I'm not dreaming am I? Please tell me that's not a dream" Ino said as she watched the man smile at them as he walked pasted them into the restaurant they were sitting in front of.

Finally able to find her voice, Sakura looked over at Ino wide eyed "if you are then we are having the same dream" leaning back in her chair to look at the man inside "have you seen him before? Because he looked at us like he knew us"

Shaking her head Ino was about to answer when said man came out and walked over to then.

"Hey Ino-san, Sakura-san, long time no see how have you two been?" smiling at the as he pulled a chair over to sit with them.

"Um…" Ino looked to Sakura in surprise "I'm sorry have we met before?"

The man blushed much to their surprise "wow I guess he was right I have changed… it's um… me… Naruto" he smiled again at their shocked expressions.

This time both of their jaws dropped, both thinking the same thing _'WHAT?!?!? How is this Naruto?!?!'_

Looking at his watch Naruto moves to stand "well I got to get going I still need to see the old hag, it was great seeing you two again um… I guess I'll see you girls around… I'll be at training ground 18 if either of you wanna talk and catch up or… ya" giving them a shy smile before leaving "bye Ino-san, Sakura-san"

After he was gone Sakura finally spoke "did I hear him right??... That's Naruto?? That's my old teammate from all those years ago?" she asked while looking at Ino in disbelief.

"That's what who he said he was" shaking her head "my god… who knew that Naruto the runt of the class would grow up to be…"

Sakura finished for her "grow up to be that good looking"

Ino smiled "well I don't know about you but stopping by area 18 later sounds like a good idea"

"I can't go I have to train with Tsunade" Sakura said with small pout

"Too bad for you" Ino said as the two got up to leave and go their separate ways for the day "see you at home then"

Sakura nodded "yep and don't forget it's your turn to cook."

*************************

Few hours' later Ino heads to training ground 18 to see what Naruto's up to. When she found him she couldn't help but blush. "My, oh my…" she whispered out.

"156…. 157…. 158…. 159…. 160…." Naruto was in doing pull ups on a tree branch shirtless and was very sweaty from all his training. "161…. 162…. 163…. 164…. 165…. 16-."

After the blush died down, she hoped, she walked into the clearing to where he was. "Hey Naruto-kun!!" smiling as he dropped from the tree and grabbed his towel to wipe the sweat away "hey Ino-san!"

Not bothering with his shirt Naruto sits down and pats the space next to him "have a seat…" grinning at Ino "don't worry I don't bite… much." He had to bite back a laugh at the look of shock on her face as she sat down though he noticed the blush as well.

"Ha, ha, ha, very funny Naruto-kun" she says back and sticks her tongue out at him. "So… what brought you back after so long? Not that I don't want you here"

Lying back on the grass, using his arms as a pillow, he answered "I could only stay away for so long. I…" sighing while closing his eyes, Ino lays back as well but on her side facing him "you what?" opening his eyes to look at her "there was someone here that I missed and I didn't want to be away any longer."

Ino looks away knowing who he missed, whispers "you missed Sakura…" not knowing she said it out loud she jumped a little when Naruto answered.

"actually, though most people don't believe me; I've been over her long before I left for training. No there was someone else I missed here in Konoha" he blushed this time.

"What?? But… who is it you missed then?" she looked back at him with a look of confusion on her face.

"Just someone who is special to me" getting up with a wink, he dusts himself off and holds a hand out to Ino. "Come it's getting late, I'll walk you home"

Pouting that he won't tell her she reaches out and takes his offered hand and gets up "thank you, but this doesn't mean I'll give up… I will find out who this person is"

rolling his eyes with a smile "fine that's up to you but you wont find out" pulling his shirt on, to Ino's disappointment, he grabs his pack in one hand and holds the other out to Ino again "shall we get you home m'lady?"

Shaking her head she takes his hand and they head towards her and Sakura's apartment.

****************************

"This is my stop" she said pointing to the complex where she lived. Reluctantly she let go of his hand "I guess I'll see you around?" it came out more of a question then a statement.

Smiling Naruto answered "ya, you sure will… oh I almost for got, I'm having a house warming party this Saturday, everyone is invited" looking hopeful ay Ino "I was hoping you'll be able to make it"

Looking confused Ino asked "house warming? Don't you mean a welcome back party?" brushing loose strands of hair out of her face.

Scratching the back of his head "well… I bought a new place; the place I used to live at has new tenants since I was gone so long"

"Really? Where do you live now?" folding her arms around herself cause its getting cold outside and she left her jacket inside.

Noticing her shiver a little naruto shrugged off his jacket he put on earlier and put is around her shoulders. "Not too far from here actually, maybe a block or two away, it's at the end of this street"

With a shy smile "well then, guess I'll have to drop by more often since you live so close now and yes I will go to the party. Is there anything you would like me to bring?"

Shaking his head at her "nope just bring yourself, but if there anything you like to drink or eat at the party just let me know so I can make sure its there" looking at his watch again "I better get going I still got unpacking to do before this weekend"

"ok I'll let you go then and thank you for walking me home" before she could stop herself she stood on her tippy toes and kisses his cheek "night naruto-kun" and left into the complex before he had time to react "night Ino… -chan" putting his hands into his pockets he headed home.

****************************

"What took you so long? It's your turn to cook and I'm hungry!!" was the first thing Ino heard as she walked into their apartment. Rolling her eyes "I was with naruto-kun and we lost track of time, so quite you whining I'll start dinner right now" heading to the kitchen still wearing Naruto's jacket.

Walking into the kitchen and sitting down on the kitchen counter, Sakura raised an eyebrow at her roommate "what were you two doing that you lost tract of time?"

Getting a pot of water boiling Ino shakes her head "getting your mind out of the gutter, we were just talking about what's being going on these past years. Also he invited us to his home for a party this weekend; it's a welcome home/house warming party."

"House warming?" tilting her head to the side a little Sakura handed Ino a packet of noodles to add to the water.

"ya, he bought a new house and its not that far from here either, he said its at the end of the street" she said while breaking the noodles Sakura gave her in half before adding them to the boiling water.

"Wow that's close" Sakura hopped off the counter and went to set the table. "So what kind of house warming/welcome back gift do you wanna get him?"

Shrugging while stirring the noodles "I don't know he said he didn't want anything" looking at flavor packets she tossed two to Sakura "pick, pork or shrimp flavor ramen"

Opening the pork packet Sakura pours it into the pot "pock sounds better then shrimp right now… Tsunade had me working with fish while practicing my medic-jutsu"

So the night went on, talking about there day as they ate then turned in for the night.


	2. Welcome Back

Sometimes having a day off is not a good thing, especially if you have nothing else to do that day. Which is why, Ino is now wondering around Konoha for something to do.

"no, I was hoping for something a little lighter… like… a coffee cream color" Ino walked over to where she heard the voice "Naruto?"

Smiling naruto looked over to Ino as the clerk at the store went to find what they we're talking about. "Hey Ino-chan, what you doing here?"

"I was gonna ask you the same thing, as for me I have the day off so I'm just walking around. What are you doing here?"

pointing to the new tubes of paint the clerk brought over "repainting the house inside and out, the colors are to plain" picking up the tubes of coffee cream paint and putting them on a cart, Ino just now noticed, that had 8 other tubes of paint already on it.

"That's a lot of paint for a house, how big is your place?" Ino asked as she looked at the different colors he had in the cart.

After paying the clerk, naruto started pushing the cart towards his house "why don't you come with me and see for yourself?" chuckling as she run to catch up to him.

*********************

"This is your house?" Ino look at the place in awe.

"Yep, home sweet home" he said pushing the cart around back.

The house was a two story house with a big backyard. Downstairs there was a large living room, a family size kitchen with marble counter tops along with a good size walk-in pantry, an extra large dojo and a medium size study, along with two bathrooms. Upstairs had a master bedroom and bathroom, four guest bedrooms with their own bathrooms, and two more bathrooms by themselves.

"Naruto… what made you wanna buy this place?" she said as she followed him around back still looking at the house.

Unloading the cart he threw Ino a confused look "you don't like it?"

Blushing and shaking her head "no it's not that, its just… this looks like a big place for only one person"

"oh…" unloading the last tube he shrugged "well, I wanna have a family some day, so I thought I get a place like this while I can and fix it up little by little for when that happens" while saying this he was looking Ino up and down "hmm…"

Blushing again she raised an eyebrow at him "hmm, what?"

"Just wondering if your any good at painting" shrugging again he took two coffee cream tubes and began to head inside.

Following him yet again she gave him a confused look "why would you be wondering that?"

"well since you have nothing to do today, I was gonna see if you would like to help me paint" setting the tubes down in the living room that had nothing in it but a beige painting tarp of the floor covering the wooden floor.

Smiling "I would love too… but I need to go home and change first, I really don't wanna get paint on these clothes. Let me go change first then I'll come back and help?"

"If you're worried about your clothes I could just give you something of mine to wear, it would be a problem at all" he said heading up stairs.

"You sure?" she said as she rushed to catch up to him, following him into the master bed room.

Looking through a few boxes he pulled out some clothes "ya I'm sure, the might be a little big though."

Taking the clothes and heading to the bathroom "thank you these will do fine"

******************

Three days later, night of the party

"Wait till you see his house is beautiful, even before we repainted it," Ino says as she fixes her skirt. She and Sakura are walking to Naruto's house for the party, wine bottles in hand as gifts.

Rolling her eyes… again "I heard you the last hundred times Ino" Sakura really wanted to see the house from what Ino's been telling her about it, it must be a dream to live in.

Finally reaching the door Sakura looked on in awe. "Told you so" Ino gives Sakura a playful push and rings the door bell.

Sakura was about to answer when the door opened "hey girls, welcome, come on in everyone's in the living room and the food and drinks are in the kitchen"

Naruto's POV

Opening the door I had to stop myself from blushing. Standing at my door were two angels.

"Hey girls, welcome, come on in everyone's in the living room and the food and drinks are in the kitchen,"

Checking out Ino and Sakura as they walked past. Ino was wearing a tight baby blue spaghetti strap top with an open white blouse and a short white skirt. Sakura on the other hand was in a light green long sleeve shirt and shorts. Both showing off their tone legs that came from years of training.

Girls POV

'_Hot damn…' _both had a light blush. After the door opened it revealed naruto. Looking him up and down they just couldn't get their blush to go away. Naruto was wearing a white muscle shirt with an open black dress shirt over it and fitted black jeans.

"Hey girls, welcome, come on in everyone's in the living room and the food and drinks are in the kitchen"

Walking past him into the house to meet everyone else.

Normal POV

The party went on through the night everyone catching up on the past and how everyone's been doing. "- and then they caught him peeking in on him again. I didn't seen him for five days later I found out he was tied and left hanging from a tree in the near by forest" everyone was laughing at Naruto's tales of his training trip with ero-sennin.

As the night worn on people were getting tired, some too drunk to go home. "hey, Lee help me get Ino and Sakura to my room" picking up ion bridle style. Lee picked up Sakura while trying not to wake her up, "why your room? You have others"

Shaking his head, "I never finished the other rooms and mine is the only one with a bed. I'll crash on the couch down here" walking with Lee up the stair to his room.

After putting the girls to bed, just taking off their shoes and socks, those who were awake and could still walk went home after saying their good-byes.

Getting his pajamas, some extra pillows and blankets from his room, naruto heads down stairs to the couch fallen asleep soon as his head hits the pillow.


	3. Whose house is it again?

**I don't own Naruto!!!**

**Whose house is it again??**

"Mmmm….." was the only sound heard from inside the master bed room as a delicious smell hit ino's nose. As she stretches and yawns she freezes feeling someone's arm around her waist _'oh… god no… please god no…'_ she prays to herself as she looks behind her.

"No I don't wantanothercookie…" Ino tries not to laugh as she looks and sees sakura mumbling in her sleep. _'Thank kami it's only her…'_

After she untangles herself from sakura's grip, which was not easy at all, she follows that delicious smell that woke her up to begin with.

"So wat still needs to be done around here?" still a little groggy from sleep Ino tries to place that voice. "Well Ino and I already finished the kitchen, living room, and the bathrooms on this floor."

There was a hiss and a sizzling sound coming from the kitchen as she entered the kitchen. She finally had a face to put to the first voice, since the second had to be Naruto from what was said.

"We also did the master bedroom and the… oh morning ino-chan" Naruto smiles from his place infront of the stove making what smelled like a really good breakfast. "Ya, morning Ino" said a quiet chouji while sipping his coffee, who Naruto had found out, had passed out in one of the unfinished rooms not knowing how he got there.

Chouji, like everyone else had grow up and changed for the better. Long gone was the 'fat' kid as some would call him (but never to his face) and in its place was a hunk. Standing at 6'6", making him the tallest of them all, and chouji packed on the muscle. Where Naruto was lean, chouji was bulk but not overly, which suited his tall frame just fine.

Ino could only nod her response since she was trying to pick her jaw up from the floor from seeing a shirtless Naruto again this time in shorts and having 'bed head' hair style.

"So where was I… oh ya, we also did the master bedroom and bathroom plus a bathroom. Everything else still needs work" he smiles and rolls his eyes as he says this last part while dodging a slap to the head by Ino "and Ino swears I need to pick more colors to 'liven up the place."

Taking a seat next to chouji while pouting "well u do, all u have is shades of browns, greens, and yellows. More color will do this place good."

Chouji just shakes his head with a smile as he sees sakura walk in the room "morning sakura" they all say only getting a "hn" in reply as she slumps into the seat on the other side of chouji.

After setting plates down infront of everyone including himself, Naruto sat down and they chatted away catching up some more on lost time.

*******************************

"No"

"But…"

"I said no" groaned the first voice

"But it will look nice" whined the second voice

"Didn't u just hear me say…" the first voice sounding irritated now

"For the love of…. Just let her Naruto so we can move on and get out of here" came the very annoyed voice of sakura as she stood to the side watching Ino and Naruto argue about some new paint colors for naruto's house that Ino wanted.

Sighing and resigning himself to his fate, Naruto just nods his ok as Ino squeals her joy of winning "don't worry the color purple will look good in one of the rooms, promise"

Naruto just grunts his defeat as he adds the tubs on paint the got to the cart "anyways… thanks again girls for agreeing to help me work on the house on your days off."

Both hoping on the cart, knowing Naruto wouldn't complain about having to push the cart and them all the way home, grinning at him "no problem Naruto", "ya, we are happy to help you out." He just shakes his head and heads from home pushing the cart, tubs and girls in all.

*******************************

"Yes"

"No"

"Yes"

"No"

"Yes"

"No"

"YES!!"

"NO!!"

"SHUT UP!! My god you two are acting like two year olds!!" yelled an angry sakura as, yet again; Ino and Naruto fight about wat will be going in naruto's house.

For the past three weekends of working on naruto's place (because he refuses to use shadow clones to make the work go by faster) they have argued about what will go into his house every time they went out shopping for things. You would swear they were married by how much they fight about what they will buy for it.

"I say we get the dark wood table cause it goes well with the whole kitchen/dinning room decorum" Ino says as she folds her arms over her chest.

"No, I want the cherry wood one because it has a extra middle piece to make the table longer for when I have more people over to eat," Naruto huffs out in annoyance.

"Running and hand over her face sakura sighs "we will get the cherry wood table and chairs then…" pausing to give Ino a glare as she was about to say something "since it _is_ naruto's place Ino."

And so the weeks it went as they shopped for more things till yet again Naruto had to push the stuff they got and the girls to his place again for another day of work.

"I still say that dark wood table set would have been better…"

"INO!!!" the other two yelled in annoyance.


End file.
